Left Behind
by FoxGlade
Summary: COMPLETE. When Tobias breaks a wing, it seems like a simple job for Cassie to fix him up and send him on his way... but then again, nothing is really as it seems for the Animorphs... mostly fluff. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1: Down

Left Behind

Tobias's POV

On a day like this, I was almost glad that I had no two hour limit.

I wheeled on the thermal I was riding, surveying the woodland below me. We (the Animorphs) had just broken up from a meeting in Cassie's barn, and there were a few hours of daylight left that I planned to use.

My name is Tobias. You know how it goes. I expect you already know about the Yeerks, and what they do. About us, and what we do. So I'm not explaining it again.

You most likely know how I went over the two hour limit, and how I'm now a hawk forever, never to be human again.

But, as I said, on a day like this, I was almost thankful that I could just stay up here for hours on end, just circling, gliding, soaring…

"Screee!" I banked left sharply, just as a peregrine falcon shot up from below me. Damn falcons, the hotshots of the avian world. I watched as the peregrine shot away from me with its amazing speed. Yeah, you better run, punk, I called after it in thought-speak. Not that it could understand me.

I decided to get to my meadow and have my dinner before any more birds could get to me. My world wasn't all thermals and happy meadows. It was cold, ruthless killing.

Yeah, that kind of ruined my flying mood.

I sighted my meadow below me and prepared to dive. And a pair of talons latched onto my back.

"Tseeer!" I cried in my red tailed hawk voice. I tried to twist and attack the golden eagle that was now tightening its grip on me, but just as I reached to tear at it with my sharp beak, it let go.

Down, down, I plummeted, too shocked and hurt to even try and flap my wings. So down I went.

And, with a sickening _snap_, I landed.


	2. Chapter 2: Help

Hello, FoxGlade here! Thank you to:

metamorphstorm

for the review! You get a peanut cunch cookie! I know that there would have been a lot more reviews, but I only put it on the web last night and I couldn't wait to write more. So here it is! Thought speak in italics.

DISCLAIMER: sometimes I cry into my pillow at night because I do not own Animorphs. Actually, that was just that one time. Okay, I never do that. But I might one day!

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Ax's POV

I was feeding near my scoop when I heard the screams.

The sound was faint and distant, so I could not tell if I recognised the voice or not. I trotted quickly towards the sounds.

It was almost dark, just before sunset. I realised I was heading for Tobias's meadow just as the screaming stopped. I galloped the last few feet and burst into the clearing.

No humans were there, which was a relief. But I quickly saw the crumpled bundle of brown and red feathers, lying very still on the edge of the meadow.

I hurried over to the hawk's side, very sure that it was Tobias. Sure enough, as I leaned over it, the hawk opened its fierce golden brown eyes, and whispered, _Too bad I can't morph out of this one, Ax._

I checked his heartbeat; it was steady. Then I saw what had bought him tumbling to Earth.

Six large gashes on his back, like talon marks. His wing, bent at an unnatural angle, broken. I gently picked up his unconscious body and began to run.

Memories were flashing in my head; a crowded enclosed area, filled with injured animals; a kind voice, soothing all the patients; and a time when I had morphed Prince Jake, and had dinner at a friend's dwelling.

_Do not fear, my _shorm_. Cassie will make sure you are alright._

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Yay, I love this story! It's is a lot better than my others, and easier to write. I'm working on a oneshot now, too.

I'm listening to "I Miss You" by Blink 182 right now, and it is my favourite song ever (for now). If you love it/ hate it, review and tell me! Or, you know, just review anyway!


	3. Chapter 3: Dreaming

Who is it? Why, it's me! Put the Fox in the Glade, and what do you get?

A fox in a glade. Duh.

Anyway, thank you to:

Crazy Computer's Vendetta: I'm honoured to have the Animorphs Restart author review my work! And honestly, I don't think it's all that interesting.

and, as always, metamorphstorm: well, you'll see what's next if you read on, won't you?

Now, read on! Thought speak in italics.

DISCLAIMER: I don not own Animorphs, the song "Fix You", or the phrase "Andalite Stutter". I also don't own the words "kakato", "heel", "munted, "horrendous", "Yeerk!", or the words, "everybody was kung fu fighting!", but that's a different story. I partially own "The Adventures of Ranko and Bidzy".

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Cassie's POV

It was just after sunset, and I had settled down to do my homework. It was hard to imagine that I fought an alien invasion everyday by turning into animals, and still had to worry about small things, like homework and boys.

Oh yes, I worried a lot over boys. Did he like me? Did he think I looked alright? Did these clothes make me look bad?

Anyway. I was just about to start when I hear a knock on the door. My father answered it. I strained to hear who it was, and heard this:

"Hello? Who are- oh!"

"Hello. You must be Cassie's father. Er. Do you know where she is?"

Oh boy. That voice was familiar.

"Yeah, I'll just- um, go get her. Cassie!" Dad yelled towards my room. I hurried to the front door, where my suspicions were confirmed.

It was Ax, in his human morph. And in his arms was a very dead looking Tobias.

***

I stifled a gasp. Quickly, I turned to Dad, and answered his questioning glance. "Um… Dad, this is Phillip, from school. I told him to bring any injured wildlife he found here. Isn't that right, Philip?" I said forcefully to Ax. Luckily he caught on.

"Yes. That is correct. Corrrrec – tuh. Corrrrectuh." he said with his usual weird way of playing with words.

I needed to ask what happened, but I couldn't in front of Dad, for obvious reasons. So I grabbed Ax by the forearm and dragged him towards the barn. "I'll just take care of this patient, Dad!" I called over my shoulder to my thoroughly confused father.

We walked into the barn, and I took Tobias gently out of Ax's arms. "What happened?" I asked him softly. He hid it well, but I could tell he was a bit shaken up from the experience.

Ax, with his usual aloof tone, described what had happened. "I was feeding near my scoop, when I heard screaming. Ing. I didn't recognise it, so I followed it to Tobias's meadow. I found him on the fringe of the clearing. He fell unconscious shortly after I arrived. Ived. I – vuh – duh. Arr – iii – vuh – duh."

I checked Tobias for his injuries, and hissed in shock. Six deep talon marks were gouged into his back, and one wing was snapped almost in half. I placed him in a large cage near the back of the barn.

"I'm going to give him some morphine – pain killer – now, just so he doesn't feel it if he wakes up," I explained to Ax as I performed what I was saying. "When the morphine sets in, which will take a minute or two, I'll set that wing so it heals straight. But while we're waiting, I'll clean those wounds on his back."

As I disinfected the gouges, I marvelled at my ability to stay calm. But then again, I had been doing this all my life. And it was so much easier if I imagined this hawk to be just another non-sentient creature, instead of a person, someone who I had come to regard as a friend.

I was just getting the wing ready to splint when Tobias let out a small, soft, whimper of fear and pain.

I froze; oh god. Had I set to work to early? Had he woken up when the morphine had not set in? I knew splinting was painful, which was why we used morphine. How would it feel to wake up in such terrible pain, in a place so different to where you last were?

But my fears were in vain. Tobias just gave a sigh, and said ever so softly, _Go away. Please… go away._

I looked at Ax, my face a mix of relief, sadness and pity. "It's okay," I told him as he stared at Tobias with a worried frown. "He's just dreaming."

"What would he be dreaming about? Ing? Ing – uh?" Ax asked, still frowning.

I tried to remember the Tobias of old: a slightly dopey, sweet kind of guy, with dream like eyes and ruffled dirty blonde hair.

"He used to get bullied a lot," I said hesitantly. "You know, beat up and teased and that."

Ax looked a little confused, but I think he got the gist of it. He didn't ask anything else.

We worked in silence for a little while, but soon I just had to ask: "What are we going to tell the others?"

Ax looked up at me. "The truth, of course. Orsssse. We shall call a meeting tomorrow and tell the others. Ssssss."

I nodded. "Yeah. That sounds good."

So we worked on in silence, trying to fix our broken friend.

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Sorry for the last line, I had "Fix You" by Coldplay (I think that's who does that song) stuck in my head, so yeah. And sorry if I overdid the "Andalite Stutter" thing (how Ax plays with sounds) too much. Also sorry if the medical procedure in this chapter was messed up, and not the right thing to do. Why must you mock me because I am not a Doctor Doolittle type person? *sob*.

Love it, hate it, want it to die, want to marry it, couldn't care less… I don't mind, just review! And if you could tell me what flames are (as in, "No flames please" and "Flames will be used to roast those who send them"), that would be cool. Keep reading and reviewing! --FoxGlade


	4. Chapter 4: Waking Up

*Singing to the tune of that High School Musical song I hate* What time is it? Update time! It's Chapter Four!

I am now officially a teenager, as it was my 13th birthday on 26th August. So, here we go!

And, as always, thank you to Crazy Computer's Vendetta and metamorphstorm, for their awesome reviews, and for telling me what flames are. Thank you to Vendetta for the idea of the dream chapter (I was thinking of something like it, but you refined it for me) and meta (your new nickname!) for the compliment.

By the way, I'm pretty sure this story is set between books 11 and 12, so just before he gets his morph powers back. Yeah, that'll do. Thought speak in italics, flashbacks/dreams in underlined.

DISCLAIMER: if I owned Animorphs, would I really still be writing these crappy little fanfics under a pen name, when I could be publishing them? *pause* yes, yes I would. Never mind. Also, I do not own the phrase "goo of the day".

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Jake's POV

The day after our last meeting in the barn, I expected school to go along quietly. You know, a chance to try and be normal, which isn't easy when you're the leader of Earth's only hope for survival.

But at lunch, as I sat with Marco in the cafeteria, Rachel slid up to our table and sat next to me. "Hey cous, Marco," she said easily. "Cassie's calling a meet this afternoon, usual time and place."

I looked up at her. Why would Cassie call everyone over just a day after our last meeting?

"Apparently," Rachel added, "it's something important. She wouldn't even tell me."

I nodded. "Okay, we'll be there." I replied. She stood up.

"Jake. Marco." She winked at Marco as she left. Marco blew her a kiss and fluttered his eyelashes at her. Rachel responded with a very rude hand gesture, and walked away. I turned to my best friend. "What do you think it is?" I murmured.

Marco grinned. "She probably just wants to give you a big, sloppy kiss!" he said triumphantly. And ducked as I threw my goo of the day at him.

***

I landed on the barn floor and immediately started to demorph from peregrine falcon. _Okay, wha_-t's happened?" I said, making the transition between thought speak and regular speech mid sentence.

Cassie looked up from a patient's cage, and scanned our faces. We were all present, even Ax. Marco, lolling on a hay bale. Rachel, leaning nonchalantly against a pole. Me, fully demorphed and now standing in the middle of the floor, ready to start pacing. Ax himself was standing near the stable doors.

Cassie bent back over the cage and adjusted a bandage on the animal inside it. I couldn't see what type it was.

"We got this guy in yesterday," Cassie said absently. "He was in a bad state. Six deep wounds on his back, and a broken wing to boot. He almost lost too much blood, but we fixed him in the end. Now we just need the wing to heal."

"Cassie," Rachel interrupted in a firm tone. "Sorry to be insensitive, but what does this have to do with anything?"

Cassie turned slowly around, cradling said patient in her arms, so I could finally see what it was. "Because," she said patiently, "this patient is better known to us as Tobias."

***

Tobias's POV

For a long time, I saw nothing, heard nothing, felt nothing. But slowly, images crawled through my frazzled mind, passing in front of my unfocused eyes.

It was those bullies again. Why couldn't they leave me alone? They pushed me against a wall, and before I could put a hand up, the leader let fly a wicked punch against my nose. I let out a whimper of pain, and thought what I would never be brave enough to say: _Go away. Leave me alone!_

I shuddered away from the memory, and thought I heard a distant voice say, _"He's losing a lot of blood. We might lose him."_ Who were they talking about? Wait, who was 'they'? Another voice: _"…a golden eagle. They're the only thing that…_" Golden eagle? No, a peregrine falcon. A shrill cry, a twist in the air… But then I was gone again, lost in a world of warm darkness.

Once again, I rested in my black existence of no senses – nothing to see, hear, taste or touch. And then, without warning, a new flash came at me…

A long way away, I heard the wolf pack howling. _Lucky them,_ I thought bitterly. They have a home, a family. And what did I have? Nothing.

A burst of pain. Was someone calling out my name? The red hot slice of blades, cutting through my delicate feathers and into the soft skin, making me cry out_. Help_! I cried uselessly. Useless – I couldn't morph, could do more than fly around and watch my friends get slashed by the whirling, tumbling mass of blades.

It was too much. With a cry, I jerked into awareness, and felt the pain of my wing.

_What? Let me go!_ I yelled to the pair of arms that were trying to contain me. Capture me, trap me, never to be free again!

"Tobias, calm down! We're trying to help!" It was the tone that made me calm down, stop resisting, and finally take in the scene. It wasn't Cassie's usual tone, a calm and soothing voice. She sounded like she was about to cry.

When I finally looked around, I saw that I was in the barn. The rest of the Animorphs were there. I saw Ax, and realised.

_You bought me to Cassie? Good thinking,_ I said, trying to sound calm. I sounded strangled, and bordering on hysterical.

Cassie heard the tone and began to put me back in the cage I assumed I had spent the night in. _Wait, no!_ I protested. _I don't – why do I have to – I don't need to be in a cage!_ I finally shouted. She locked me in there regardless. I stared into her dark brown eyes.

"Sorry Tobias. I don't trust you not to try and fly away. You are part hawk, you know."

Curse her and her logic. I slumped in my little prison as I half heartedly listened to Jake and the others talk about what to do with me, and what to do if another mission cropped up. They agreed that it would be best if I just stayed here while my wing healed. Speaking of which, I thought as said wing started to throb painfully.

Soon enough, everyone had left except Rachel. Cassie had found some excuse and slipped away to her house.

Rachel knelt in front of me. "Hey," she said softly. "Sorry about your wing."

I didn't need her pity! _Don't worry,_ I said dismissively. _It looks worse than it is. Barely even hurts, _I added, as another throb of it made me wince.

Thankfully she didn't notice. She stood up to leave, and hesitated. "Take care, Tobias." she said ironically. _And you,_ I said a little huskily.

She left, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

Yep, just me and my thoughts. And that big old crow in the cage next to me.

_I'm watching you,_ I warned it with a glare. The crow, of course, didn't reply.

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Yay, I love that end. I'm not certain of the plot after this chapter, so sorry if I don't update for a while. Don't say I didn't warn you. I also have two more ideas, one long story and a oneshot. Both are Animorphs, so keep an eye out for them!

Keep reviewing!


	5. Chapter 5: Freedom

It's a chapter, number five, OH MY GOD! CHAPTER FIVE!

I am so random.

Chapter Five time! As always, I'd like to start by saying a great big THANK YOU to all my awesome reviewers – I now have a total of 11 reviews, which for me, a complete noob, is the equivalent of everyone on the Internet saying, "Lillian, you are the bomb!"

Mersang: underplaying it? I'll try harder in future!

Freakingmeout: love the penname!

Crazy Computer's Vendetta: how can you write such articulate reviews?? mine usually go along the lines of "lol! nice. keep updating!"

and, my first and favourite, metamorphstorm: I like the end too, which is why I said I did!

Got two other stories now – Someday, a short oneshot that may evolve into a series of drabbles, and Author's Revenge, my own little "forgotten Animorph adventure".

DISCLAIMER: If I write enough fanfics, then KA will have to admit that I am a better author and hand the rites over to me! *pause* it worked out fine in me head…

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Cassie's POV

We were lucky that the Yeerks lay low over the next few weeks. Tobias's wing was on the recovery track after just a week, which was lucky, because (as Tobias complained often) apparently my dad just didn't understand the right way to treat hawks.

_He just treats us like we can't understand anything!_ he protested one afternoon as I redid his splint. _As if we're no better than AAAAH!!_ he screamed as I accidently bent his fragile wing bone a bit.

"Sorry, sorry!" I muttered as I quickly finished the job. "No better than what?"

He glared at the big crow next to him. _Crows,_ he spat. _Or seagulls. Or even,_ he sneered, _pigeons_.

I laughed. I couldn't help it. Tobias was just so hawklike sometimes, it was funny.

Because Tobias was not just any regular patient, I let him have certain freedoms. Even though I made him stay in his cage (which he resented beyond imagining) during the day and at night, I let him out in the afternoons when I was there. He thanked me constantly for his half hour of freedom, and was cursing me when he had to go back into his prison.

So I was amazingly grateful when four weeks later, the time came to release him back into the wild. Since my dad was there, we had to go through it all like Tobias was any old red tailed hawk, not one of the most unique creatures on Earth.

Four weeks was an unusually quick recovery time. I guess Tobias was so determined to get well that he kind of forced his body to recover.

Rachel, Jake, Marco and Ax had all found excuses to come along. Rachel had stayed at my house the night before, Jake had just stopped by to say hi, and Marco and Ax (or Philip as his human morph was called) had come with him.

I'd innocently led my dad to a place near Tobias's meadow to release said hawk in. I set the cage gently down, unlocked it, and reached out for Tobias.

"Careful," Dad warned. "He might take a peck at you."

"Don't worry," I assured him. "Me and this hawk have bonded. We're great friends now," I added, winking at Rachel. She started giggling, which was kind of strange for her.

Tobias gave me a brief glare, but hopped onto my arm all the same. I lifted him up and said, "Okay. Go on, now, hawk. Fly, be free. Scat."

_Scat?_ Tobias asked us in private thought speak so Dad couldn't hear. _Four weeks of captivity, eating dead mice, and you say scat?_

He took off. _Oh man, I missed this!_ he yelled, still in private thought speak. _Goodbye cage, hello world! I'm back!_

Dad didn't understand why we all suddenly burst out laughing. But I'm pretty sure I heard the phrase "crazy kids" as he muttered under his breath.

We didn't mind. Tobias's joy was infectious. We left and went home in a good mood.

* * *

Rachel's POV

Tap. Tap.

The familiar sound roused me from my reading, and I slipped over to the window. I opened it, and in fluttered a certain red tailed hawk.

"Hey," I said with a smile. "Happy flying?"

_No idea I'd missed it so much,_ he replied happily. I _had my first fresh meal in weeks!_

I sighed. "You know, I was jealous of Cassie when she first told us?" I admitted. "I guess that if you were hurt or sick, I wanted to be the one who'd take of you."

_Aww, how sweet!_ Tobias teased. _Well, next time I get mobbed or come down with the flu, I'll be sure to come tapping on your window._

I smiled. It was good to be back to normal.

Well, as normal as you can get when you turn into animals to fight a secret alien invasion.

But, for now, I was happy just talking to Tobias. That was all the normal I needed.

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Hmm, questionable ending. Sorry, I couldn't think of a good line. That's the end, by the way.

Once again, thank you to all the reviewers – you don't know how much your support meant and still means to me! Also thanks to the Tobias that lives in my head, for not giving me too much crap over this fanfics.

*Tobias appears*

Tobias: no, it's the other one I'm worried about!

Me: what – oh, that one. We went over this-

Tobias: I don't care! look, talk to you later.

Me: bye love bird!

Tobias: stop calling me that!

Me: aw, you know you love me!

Tobias: you say that way too much.

*Tobias disappears*

He so loves me. The one he's worried about is called Author's Revenge (MWAHAHAHAHAH!!) and I just published the first chapter of it. Want to help even more? Review it!

So, goodbye to this story, and goodbye to you. I had a lot of fun with it, but I couldn't hold it for long. So long!

-FoxGlade


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